Perhaps this was just a super early leak of a Botcon 2013 figure. Sure, the leak seems incredibly early for such a figure, but the set this year is so off the wall stupid, that maybe this add-on figure can save it. Who knows, but we’ll find out in a few short months!

I have it on good faith that something ‘big’ is coming to Transformerland. Some rather ominous posts by Transformers insider Hydra were posted via Facebook today and yesterday. I have blurred out all the personal data here, but rest assured, that is the man himself. For those of you that don’t know, Hydra is the surname of a Transformers super collector that has made the rounds for years and resides in Japan. He has since found himself working alongside E-hobby in various ways. Word is that he was essential in the bridge between the US TF Collector Club and E-hobby for the G1 Shattered Glass set that is soon to come out. He is also a very high-end TF dealer helping many, including myself, find some very rare pieces over the years. The short of it is that when he speaks like this, all should listen.

Most of those stirring about this premonition have assumed he is referring to some announcements regarding Fortress Maximus. He is after all the BIGGEST when it comes to “big” transformers. Could this mean Grand Maximus? Brave Maximus? Perhaps something new and off the wall like the Armada Christmas Maximus, ret-conned into Pious Maximus? Other guesses include a clear version of Fortress Maximus or an all black version. Only time will tell, so as we patiently wait, feast your eyes on more of the illustrious Air Hammer’s digibashes. Till tomorrow, when we shall all shit our collective pants!

This just in from 2012 Cybertroncon - Asia-only right? I'm calling bullshit brigade on that one.

So Botcon 2012 has come and gone and with it some surprising revelations. The most important of these I am listing below in no particular order:

Transformers Collector Club subscription service starting soon with 6 exclusive figures available in the initial roll out. This subscription service is expected to replace the usual 1 or 2 club exclusive figures that are available each year. This will make for all intents and purposes a second boxed set of toys for fans and members of the TFCC.

Transformers Generations will induct a new voyager class starting with War for Cybertron Soundwave, later being repainted to Soundblaster. It can be expected that this is the size class for the all but confirmed Fall of Cybertron Grimlock figure to rival the giant Bruticus. We might even see a reinvented Megatron or Optimus Prime in this size class.

All the drama and fan rage over the mixmatched War for Cybertron Bruticus figures can be put to bed after the more video-game accurate paint-scheme will be available as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive set. Also showing up at SDCC is the Zombie Cliffjumper figure that seemingly vanished after the reveal at Botcon 2011.

So after the Hasbro panel, I visited the display box where the employees were setting up the new figures. There is a lock box at the bottom of the display where all the toys are kept prior to being revealed. The staff had to do this while everyone was ganged around the front of the case. I, however, mulled around in the back and caught glimpse of something that shocked me: a small green G1 legion-class Hoist. It was right there, plain as day. One was in robot mode, the other in vehicle. The female Hasbro staff then rolled it back into a sheet of bubble wrap and placed it back in the bottom of the case while the other staff member prepared Airachnid for display. I didn’t have time to take a photograph and there were too many people in the way, but it was there.

This is what I saw, and that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it

G1 Hoist as a cyberverse or legion class figure was revealed months earlier in mock-up stage (check the image up top) and during those reveals, everyone in the USA cringed or cried at the thought of all those toys being exclusive to Asia, requiring import prices. Well guess what guys? It’s time to wake up and realize that some if not all of those toys will be seen in the USA at some point. Hasbro has enough trouble producing a full toyline at all, let a lone two toylines concurrently that would be cut off from larger sales numbers by being sold in the USA.

So I am reneging on my claim that Metalhawk would be the Cyclonus mold. I still think that is a wonderful option and would like to see it, but now that the Overlord choice threw me for such a loop, I am thinking of alternatives. So here we are: Terradive, my favorite Transformer toy of 2010, and actually ever. I think this has a great chance of becoming Metalhawk along side of the Banzaitroned-out Overlord.

Found a digibash I made last year, I think I like this other one I found better

Well now we know what we’re getting in the Botcon 2012 boxset, but that just isn’t enough!!! It’s time to bite your nails and wag your tails because we are now going to wildly speculate on the additional exclusive toys to be offered at this year’s Botcon 2012!!!

Good or evil? Let's hope for good.

3- Junkion troop builder
Since we seem to get troop builder sets each year, I’m going for broke and assuming we’ll get some new Junkion decos this year. Everyone wants them! Maybe they’ll even be EVIL junkions?!

Ol' Ironhide's gonna pull through nicely.

2- Shattered Glass Evil Ironhide from classics Ironhide
Gotta re-use that mold right? A black Ironhide would be pretty sweet, and he’s shown up in the comic a time or two. Or even Ratchet instead?

Who is this Scourge asshole I keep hearing about?

1- Black Convoy from G2 Optimus Prime
This is so obviously going to happen that I shouldn’t even need to mention it. Will it be shattered Glass or straight up classics? I’m hoping for Classics instead of some weird Shattered Glass spin. There would be so many levels of double-negative that the toy might turn out bright yellow.

The only other speculation I can make at this point are molds that should / could be used. RTS Jazz, Universe Galvatron, Classics Tankor… these are all molds that haven’t been repurposed by Hasbro yet, except for Galvatron coming out as another version of Galvatron. There is also the Powerglide mold which Botcon has yet to use, but I’d put my money on Silverbolt before the latter. And don’t forget about those Cybertronian War for Cybertron molds…

We all saw the Christmas miracle that was bestowed upon us from Botcon – the brochure and listing of exclusive toys that would be gracing the boxset this year. In a strange turn of events the boxset will have six figures instead of the usual five. Could this mean we are getting extra plastic crack or that it will be comprises solely of deluxes and smaller?

Here’s the roster:Shattered Glass:

Evil Ultra Magnus

Evil Tracks

Heroic Soundwave

Heroic Treadshot

Classics:

Overlord/Gigatron

Metalhawk

Twitter has told us that no Armada / Energon / Cybertron molds have been used for this year, thank the Heavens. So it’s lookin’ like classics molds again, which is all anyone really wants. Some speculation on the molds to be used are as follows:

Metalhawk as Universe Cyclonus.

Seems feasible...

Treadshot as Universe Warpath

No one really knows jack about this guy - Digibash by Air Hammer

Soundwave as Ironhide / Ratchet mold

Duh. Forget your stupid music label whitewave

Magnus is clearly going to be the G2 Laser Prime mold with a Bludgeon styled head.

Magnus Barmitzvah - Spookeee-scarreeee

Evil Track isn’t too hard to decipher – probably a black or red repaint of the current Tracks toy.

Shattered glass on this guy will make him very gay-sad. 🙁

The one big question is is what will Overlord be? Will they focus on the jet? The Tank? BOTH? NEITHER?!!?!? Some possibilities include Deluxe Thunderwing, Ultra Silverbolt, or maybe even Warpath again if Treadshot doesn’t claim the mold. I’m also sniffing around the Cybertronian Megatron mold… Maybe we’ll get a super treat and have some sort of combiner made of two figures?!? Yeah right, but it’s fun to be a nerd sometimes. Whatever they choose for Overlord, that’s what I am anticipating the most.

Overlord, you fiend!

So what else? What else is bound to come our way? Let’s leave that for another day… or the next post!

So a friend and I made a friendly wager a few months back. The cost of MP-10 from Japan seemed excruciatingly high at the time. What people do not realize is that it is the value of the dollar that has dropped so much in the past few years that makes the $250 USD price tag of MP-10 so ‘outrageous.’ So based on this, the cost of producing MP-10 will not necessarily go down when Hasbro releases it. These price increases have slowly been trickling into the price of many things, including Transformers. I’ve been waiting for the big switch, when it all ends up about 25% more than it was the last time you checked. Even Unicron from Amazon was $60 to start, which is up from the $45, and $50 original prices he cost at retail.

So here is the wager, just to be clear:

Jessecuster: Maybe it should just be an even $100 bet
So one of us gets $100 discount based on the price of the toy

Collecticon: ok
that is more fair
we are betting $100 on the price
because what if it’s like $180

Jessecuster: exactly
here is a question, what if OP gets released for under $100 but they release the Trailer as a separate packag

Collecticon: then I lose

Jessecuster: What if the separate package pushess the hole thing over $100

Collecticon: whatever is in the boxit’s got to be one boxthey won’t release it in two separate containers

Jessecuster: Ok fair enough

So there you have it. Two Transfans putting their money where their mouth is. Who will come out victorious? Jessecuster is betting on Hasbro never having released a Transformer that is over $100 at retail. They have releases larger Star Wars vehicles above that price-point, but never a Transformer (Fortress Max excluded).

I am betting on the dropping value of the dollar, higher production costs, and lack of a retailer willing to sell the high priced item. There is one thing for sure: Hasbro will not take a hit to release this figure. So there you have it. Let the best Collecticon win!

At long last, we get a glimpse at the G1 / Dark of the Moon Chronicles giftsets including a G1 version and a Dark of the Moon version of both Optimus Prime and Megatron. I made some predictions on what these toys actually were last month. Let’s see how those held up…

Mega mega mega!

Megatron Set:Redeco of G1 Megatron with a DOTM Voyager redeco.G1 Megatron will include the Japanese accessories included in the first G1 Megatron, however not the scope and barrel stock.

No G1 trailer in sight!

Optimus Set:Redeco of G1 Optimus Prime with a DOTM Deluxe redeco. G1 Optimus will not include his G1 trailer and roller, etc, but the Deluxe version of Optimus will include a brand new trailer, mech tech weapon, and the trailer will fit on G1 Optimus some how.

Well I wasn’t too off. I apparently guessed the Optimus Set to a ‘T’, as long as these photographs are any indication. The curious thing is that there is once again new version of megatron being displayed in photograph form with a matte plastic like the original Takara release. The toy shown has the Goodbye Megatron set Chrome that US fans are used to on their G1 Megatrons. Until we see one of these packaged in the box, the truth is still up for grabs. At least we finally got to see SOMETHING though!

Ok, I’ve had it. I can stay quiet and bite my finger nails no longer. The G1 Chronicles sets were announced ages ago and since then it’s felt like a circus to figure out just what the hell is actually coming in these sets.

Originally, it was announced that 2-packs for a G1 version of Megatron would be paired with the Dark of the Moon version, same for Optimus Prime. The prices were expected to crest around $100. A few different online retailers have been posting pre-orders for said 2-packs at prices ranging from $99-$125. That’s all fine and fancy, except pretty much every online store has a different god damn photograph for the sets. Apparently, no one knows what is actually coming in the sets, as indicated by the variety of photos supplying the listings. See below:

Dark of the Moon Chronicles listings on BBTS May 2011

Dark of the Moon Chronicles listings on Ages Three and Up May 2011

Both the listings above are for the same sets of toys, from two different stores: Big Bad Toy Store and Ages Three And Up. First off, it appears that BBTS has made note of the lack of solid information regarding these sets and has taken it upon their design staff to cleverly blur out the DOTM versions of Megatron and Optimus, leaving the G1 versions. Ages Three and Up is using some sort of solicitation provided by presumably TakaraTomy featuring the Deluxe version of Optimus Prime with… hey what is that?? A Trailer? No one seems to have made any noise about the fact that these solicitations show a God damn trailer with the basic sized version of Optimus! That means TakaraTomy has made not one, not two, but THREE sizes of trailer to attach to Optimus!! Good thing I’m here to spell this kind of blatantly obvious detail to you, Collecticons. Ages Three and Up isn’t the only store using this solicitation, my buddies at Fan to Fan seem to be doing the same:

Dark of the Moon Chronicles listings on FantoFan.jp May 2011

So what I am surmising is that the more recent solicitation for this set is what the non-US-based retailers are using to promote these mysterious sets. Then there’s TFsource’s:

I have never ever seen a G1 Megatron that looks like THAT thing on the right. Not only that, but this completely contradicts the listings seen previously with the original Takara G1 Blue-legged gunmetal Megatron. What the hell!? I mean, I’d love an exclusive new deco, but blood red hands and inner thighs? Charcoal legs and siding? Whoa. And if Megatron is going to be a completely new deco, (which is totally cool!) then one could assume G1 Convoy might also get a make-over.

So here are the big pressing questions left to ponder:

Will any of the figures have unique exclusive decos seen only in these two-packs?

Which accessories will be included for each figure?

Is the Chronicles banner going to be a sub-sect of Dark of the Moon or something new altogether?

Which figure molds are we ACTUALLY getting in these sets?

Now I, Diablien, would not just leave you all hanging, now would I? Although I cannot answer these questions will absolute certainty, we can follow my Energon Gut. I believe these figures will be under the Dark of the Moon toyline and include the following:

Megatron Set:
Redeco of G1 Megatron with a DOTM Voyager redeco. G1 Megatron will include the Japanese accessories included in the first G1 Megatron, however not the scope and barrel stock.

Optimus Set:
Redeco of G1 Optimus Prime with a DOTM Deluxe redeco. G1 Optimus will not include his G1 trailer and roller, etc, but the Deluxe version of Optimus will include a brand new trailer, mech tech weapon, and the trailer will fit on G1 Optimus some how.

In the end, who knows. This whole line is already a mess that makes my head hurt. It is always a gamble pre-ordering something before we have seen a boxed sample. However, by waiting you risk the pre-orders selling out or the price sky-rocketing. These are cool sets and wrap up what I love about Transformers in one nice neat package: the new and the old. This is a cool concept and I just hope it’s executed well. There is also chatter of the 3rd Chronicles set to contain G1 Bumblebee, but considering that there are about 100 different movie-verse Bumblebees to choose from, I’ll just leave that topic for another day.